The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-16

! AtAAooAoctppA- IlC OSd&C, NTdSCOUdQE and Lamine rivers are all navigable, and thousands of lesser streams mean der through every region of the state. Missouri has a population of about 2,300,000; 155, ,000 cultivated farms, 18,- 900 manufacturing establishments, nearly 5000 miles of railroad, II, ,OOO public schools and 2O00 private schools, 200 collegiate institutions and an educational fund of about $7,500,- 900. It employs S15O, ,0OO, ,o0O of man. ufacturing capital, pays yearly for wages and material about S225 ,OOO,- 900, and produces $290,000, ,O00 in manufactured goods. Its metropolis, St. Louis, with little energy and en- terprise on the part of it's inhabitants, might easily have been the second city on the continent, instead of being reduced to rivalry with Kansas City, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and
 Kalamazoo. It has about 450, ,O0O peo- pie, and is growing slowly, but steadily, in population and wealth.
 Kansas City is one of the municipal miracles of the age. 1t has risen in ten years from struggling town of 10000 people to city of nearly 175,- 900. St. Joseph, Hannibal and Se- dalia arc important towns. Missou- rians are slowly becoming civilized, and as pistol-pockets and train-rob- berries grow rarer, the state will offer many advantages and opportunities to men who are seeking homes and fortunes.
 Kansas has been miracle of growth and prosperity. It was admitted into the Union in 1861. It's population in 1860 was but 107 ,206; in 1870, it was 364, ,339; in 1880, 1866, or nearly 200 per cent of increase in ten years; and 1t is now estimated at nearly L. 500,000. It has an area of Sl,318 square miles, or 52,043,52O acres. of land as fertile and as beautiful as ever the American eagle flew over. In 1866, Kansas was in great part an un- explored buffalo pasture and Indian hunting ground; and in 1876, just ten years later, all the world beheld with amazement the magnificent display of grains, grasses, fruits and vegetables made by the state at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. In 1866 it was the twenty fourth state in the Union in agricultural products; in 1878 it surpassed all but four in it's wheat yield, and stood fourth in corn. On it's vast plains, the native grasses grow from one to six feet high, and cattle and sheep can be grazed the whole year round. The entire south eastern part of the state is an un- broken coal bed. Salt springs abound, and lead, zinc, alum, mineral paints and many varieties of building stone are found. Hardly one-fourth of it's vast area is yet in cultivation, and lands can be bought at low prices, but the tide of immigration is pouring in and values are constantly rising. The growth of such places as Wichita, Fort Scott, Topeka, Abilene and Dodge City is one of the phenomenal things in modern history, but splen- did opportunities for the profitable l investment of brains, labor or money can be found almost anywhere in the state.
 Nebraska is the youngest but one of all the states of the Union. In ra- pidity of growth and development, Kansas alone of all the states has ever rivaled it. In 1855, it's population was 4,494; and in 1880, it was 452,542 having multiplied over hundred fold ill twenty-five years. In 1860, | it's population was 2S,4S1; in 1870, it had increased to 122, 2,993, nearly five fold in ten years; and in the decade following, the increase was nearly | four-fold. It is now estimated at over 100000. The state has an area of 76,000 square miles, or AS ,64O, ,O0O acres, larger than all New England, and | nearly every acre of it is valuable for tillage or pasture. With popula- tion as dense as that of Massachusetts, two hundred and thirty to the square mile, Nebraska would be an em- pire of 17,4So,000 souls. The taxable values of the state in 1870 were $53,709,S2S, and in 1880 they were s90,431,757, an in- crease of nearly seventy per cent. The annual increase in the value of lands is from ten to twenty per cent. The grain product increased ,OO0 per cent. in the five years from 1874 to 1879, and the increase in the production of hogs has increased as much as 250 per cent in single year. The climate is unsurpassable in healthfulness and in- vigorating qualities. The soil is ex- haustless in fertility, yielding to the most careless cultivation immense i crops of grain, grass, fruit and vege- tables. The western part of the state is a stock-grower's paradise. The grass is rank in it's luxuriance, in places attaining such a height that a man on horseback can scarcely see over it. Streams of pure water flow every where, and cattle and sheep require |